September 12, 2014 – The Williams Institute and its many accomplishments were highlighted in an Inside Philanthropy article.

Back in 2001, when philanthropist Chuck Williams donated $2.5 million to UCLA to found the Williams Institute, he knew he was filling a critical void. At the time, national support for same-sex marriage was growing but still languished below 30 percent, and 14 states still enforced anti-sodomy laws.

What Williams didn’t know was that his donation would go on record as the largest ever given to an academic institution in support of a gay and lesbian center for scholarship. Nor could he probably have imagined how many other funders would eventually follow his lead in supporting the institute, as LGBT giving soared during the first decade of the 21st century and the Williams Institute carved out a unique niche as America’s top LGBT legal policy shop.